Working America, Illinois AFL-CIO Connecting with Jobless Workers
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Illinois AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Tim Drea knows what it’s like to be unemployed—he’s experienced it himself, as a laid-off coal miner. He knows, too, how important it is to keep jobless union members involved in the union movement and the fight for working family-friendly policies. That fact turned out to be the answer to a little mystery that presented itself recently to Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate.
Working America staff was mystified when a stack of membership registrations arrived in the mail from the Illinois AFL-CIO. Although Working America had sent membership cards to many state federations and central labor councils around the country in 2009 as part of our effort to organize jobless workers through the Unemployment Lifeline, these registrations did not use those cards. Working America was not engaged in an active organizing drive on the ground in Illinois. How did the state federation there sign up so many people?
Survey Finds Support for Jobless Benefits Outweighs Deficit Concerns
Nearly three-quarters of voters say extending unemployment insurance (UI) and COBRA health care benefits that Congress allowed to expire last month is more important than reducing the deficit, according to a new poll.
The survey, by Hart Research Associates, says 74 percent of the public believes it is too soon for Congress to cut back UI and COBRA benefits. Just 21 percent said extended UI and COBRA should be cut back to help reduce the federal deficit.
With unemployment near 10 percent, at least 15 million people out of work and 6.8 million people out of work for 27 weeks or more, National Employment Law Project (NELP) Executive Director Chris Owens says:
We cannot let a handful of misguided deficit hawks pull the plug on benefits that are precisely the kind of stimulus needed for economic recovery and deficit reduction. Given the choice, the vast majority of the American people would provide unemployed workers and their communities the benefits they continue to need—Congress should be listening to them.
House Passes Watered-Down Jobs Bill, Too Late to Help Jobless
By 215-204, the U.S. House today passed a watered-down version of H.R. 4213, “The Promoting American Jobs, Closing Tax Loopholes and Preventing Outsourcing Act of 2010.” The bill extends unemployment insurance (UI) for six months. But the Senate, now on vacation, will not even consider the bill until the week of June 7, a week after UI expires for millions of jobless workers.
The bill that passed today did not include the COBRA extension or Medicaid assistance to the states. It does include $23 billion in funding to put off 21 percent cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors for 19 months and ensures that Medicare beneficiaries have access to quality and affordable medical care. It also includes subsidies for local infrastructure projects by extending the Build America Bonds program and funds for summer job creation.
Earlier this week, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told members of Congress, “If you’re not for this bill, you’re not for jobs.” Today, Trumka says:
We are profoundly disappointed and angry with representatives in Congress—Democrats as well as Republicans—who refused to support health care for the unemployed and job-saving critical aid to cash-strapped states in the original version of H.R. 4213. Working family voters will not forget who sided with them and who did not.
Jobs Bill = 1 Million Jobs. Tell Congress, Pass It Now!
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While the U.S. House is still hammering out a timetable for a vote on the Promoting American Jobs, Closing Tax Loopholes and Preventing Outsourcing Act of 2010 (H.R. 4213), lawmakers might move a little faster if they take a look at the latest report on the jobs bill. There are 1 million jobs at stake.
Call 877-442-6801 and tell Congress to pass it now!
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that the bill’s package of aid to states, infrastructure projects, extension of unemployment insurance (UI) and COBRA benefits, creation of summer jobs, loan guarantees for small business and other provisions
will help save or create well over a million critically needed jobs.
Jobs Bill Vote Nears, Call Now!
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Word from Capitol Hill is that tomorrow is the day lawmakers will get a chance to prove they are for creating jobs by voting for the Promoting American Jobs, Closing Tax Loopholes and Preventing Outsourcing Act of 2010 (H.R. 4213).
We still have time to build support for the bill. Call 877-442-6801 and urge your representative to vote for H.R. 4213 to create and save jobs and make Wall Street pay. Tell your representative a vote against the bill is a vote against jobs.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says congressional candidates can “back up their rhetoric with action,” by pledging their support for the bill. For both members of Congress and those who hope to be elected:
If you’re not for this bill, you’re not for jobs. Period.
Tell Congress: Vote for Jobs Now!
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If members of the U.S. House of Representatives support creating jobs and putting Americans back to work, as they so often claim, they’ll vote this week for a bill that creates jobs and makes Wall Street pay, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
Saying it’s “crunch time for putting Americans back to work,” Trumka tells lawmakers: “If you’re not for this bill, you’re not for jobs. Period.”
Join us in pushing hard for passage of the jobs bill and take action now. Call 877-442-6801 and urge your representative to vote for H.R. 4213 to create and save jobs and make Wall Street pay. Tell your representative a vote against the bill is a vote against jobs.
Short-Term Jobless Aid Breaks Republican Stranglehold, Obama Signs
After a nearly monthlong tantrum by Republican senators that cost hundreds of thousand of workers their unemployment insurance (UI), the U.S. House and Senate last night finally approved legislation to extend UI benefits through June 2 and President Obama immediately signed it.
But with unemployment still remaining at an official 9.7 percent and more than two in every five unemployed workers out of work for more than six months and more than five jobless workers for each job opening, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says Congress must pass a yearlong extension
so working families don’t face Republican obstruction and uncertainty every single month.
Senate Ends Republican Filibuster Against Jobless Benefits
Each day while Congress was on its two-week spring break, some 30,000 long-term jobless workers ran out of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits because of Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.), who blocked a vote to extend UI benefits.
Yesterday, the Senate’s first day back from vacation—and with more than 400,000 workers now out of benefits—Coburn was at it again, taking to the Senate floor to continue the filibuster against helping the jobless.
But by a 60-34 vote, the Senate told him to shut up and voted to end his endless diatribe against workers who are desperate for work. Coburn was joined by 33 other Republican senators who voted to continue the filibuster and block extension of UI and COBRA, which helps jobless workers pay for health insurance. Four Republicans and all 56 Democrats who were present voted for cloture. Six senators did not vote.
Coburn Can’t Take the Heat, Tries to Deflect Blame for Killing Jobless Aid
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Back home in Oklahoma, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn must really be feeling the heat from some of the millions of America’s jobless worked he shafted last week. Coburn, who blocked a short-term extension for unemployment insurance (UI), issued a press release making it look as though Senate Democrats blocked the extension and he was a helpless victim of the vote. He’s also sending out the same info to those who, like some AFL-CIO Now blog readers, sent him scathing letters for his mean-spirited move.
In short, Coburn’s spin is: Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
In fact, Coburn blocked the emergency UI extension bill, effectively killing it until after the Senate returns from break April 12. Some 200,000 jobless workers a week will now lose UI support because of Coburn. Worse, Coburn has said he would continue to block UI extension after the Senate returns.
Senate Republican Coburn Blocks Aid to America’s Jobless
The Party of “No” gets ready to strike once more against working families.
As Congress considers much-needed relief for America’s jobless workers and debates proposals to jump-start the economy, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) blocked a stopgap bill to extend jobless benefits, saying its $9 billion cost should not be added to the national debt. Coburn’s block means the Senate, which goes on a two-week recess today, won’t consider helping jobless workers until at least April 12.
From the New York Times:
As a result, some people who have been out of work for more than six months will at least temporarily lose benefits. Health insurance subsidies for the jobless will also expire. Republicans said Senate negotiations had produced a compromise that did not pass muster in the House.
